Ammons Andrew D, Hunt Greg J
School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA. ammons.unlv.nevada.edu
Alcohol. 2008 Mar;42(2):129-36. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2007.12.005.
Several candidate genes identified from quantitative trait loci (QTL) for defensive behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are homologous to genes known to influence ethanol sensitivity in other organisms. To investigate this possible link between aggression/defense and ethanol sensitivity, assays were developed to evaluate ethanol vapor responses in worker bees from a low-defensive (gentle) colony and a high-defensive colony. Defensive workers exhibited characteristic signs of ethanol-induced sedation significantly faster than gentle workers upon exposure to ethanol vapor. Backcross workers displayed ethanol sensitivity intermediate to the parental defensive and gentle lines, suggesting a genetic basis for the trait. Workers were screened with sequence-tagged site markers linked to three defensive-behavior QTL and their genotypes were tested for associations with ethanol sensitivity. There were no significant associations, indicating that the defensive QTL were not having a pleiotropic effect on ethanol sensitivity. It is possible that gentle-source alleles at these QTL are dominant with respect to sensitivity, one or more of these QTL were not segregating in the backcross family, or unidentified QTL are influencing alcohol sensitivity.
从蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）防御行为的数量性状基因座（QTL）中鉴定出的几个候选基因与已知影响其他生物乙醇敏感性的基因同源。为了研究攻击/防御与乙醇敏感性之间的这种可能联系，开发了一些试验来评估来自低防御性（温顺）蜂群和高防御性蜂群的工蜂对乙醇蒸气的反应。与温顺的工蜂相比，防御性工蜂在接触乙醇蒸气后，出现乙醇诱导的镇静特征性迹象的速度明显更快。回交工蜂表现出的乙醇敏感性介于亲代防御性和温顺品系之间，这表明该性状具有遗传基础。用工蜂与与三个防御行为QTL连锁的序列标签位点标记进行筛选，并测试它们的基因型与乙醇敏感性的关联。没有显著关联，这表明防御性QTL对乙醇敏感性没有多效性影响。这些QTL处的温顺来源等位基因在敏感性方面可能是显性的，这些QTL中的一个或多个在回交家族中没有分离，或者未鉴定的QTL正在影响酒精敏感性。
